Page 40 - EE Times Europe Magazine – November 2023

40 EE|Times EUROPE

GREENER ELECTRONICS | ENERGY STORAGE
Quantum Batteries Promise Lightning-Fast

Charging Speeds

By Rebecca Pool
Planckian wins funds to build a quantum devices with super-fast charging speeds. Quantum researcher James

battery, raising prospects of instant Quach from the University of Adelaide (Australia) and colleagues
from the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology (part of the
recharging. National Research Council in Milan) and the Universities of Sheffield,
St. Andrews and Heriot Watt in the U.K. developed a quantum battery
n a vote of confidence for the nascent field of quantum energy, using molecules of the semiconductor dye Lumogen-F Orange as
Italian startup Planckian has raised €2.7 million in pre-seed funds to energy-absorbing qubits. 2
accelerate the development of quantum batteries. With the tantaliz- The researchers suspended the dye molecules in a polymer, placed
Iing promise of uninterrupted portable power, these alternatives to them in a distributed Bragg reflector—an optical microcavity with
conventional electrochemical cells rely on qubits rather than electrons dielectric mirrors at either end—and then shone a laser at the setup to
to store energy and can charge at lightning-fast rates. excite, or “charge,” the molecules. Their results were remarkable.
The technology has barely made it into the lab, let alone real life, but Quach and colleagues discovered that the rate at which the overall
Planckian co-founder and chief scientist Marco Polini is confident that microcavity absorbed light was far faster than each molecule absorbing
tangible results are coming soon. light individually, demonstrating an effect known as super-absorption.
“For a long time, our field was totally focused on establishing They further showed that the charging time decreased as the size of
theorems for energy extraction and storage, and understanding the microcavity and the number of dye molecules increased—in other
how quantum mechanics can give you an advantage here, without a words, the larger the quantum battery, the faster the charge.
concrete experiment or device,” Polini said. “But a few years ago, we At the time, the quantum battery could hold only a minute
published [details] of an actual battery architecture that you could electronic charge compared with a typical electrochemical cell, but
build in the lab. … We’ve now got the funds to build this device.” 1 as Quach said when the work was announced by the University of
Adelaide, “Underlying the super-absorbing effect of the quantum
QUANTUM BUZZ batteries is the idea that all the molecules act collectively. … This is a
Following that paper’s publication, quantum batteries were well and significant breakthrough and marks a major milestone in the develop-
truly thrust into the limelight in January 2022, when scientists exper- ment of the quantum battery.”
imentally proved that quantum effects could be harnessed to develop More results came three months later, when researchers at the

Planckian co-founders (left to right) Marco Polini, Vittorio Giovannetti and Michele Dallari (Source: Planckian)

NOVEMBER 2023 | www.eetimes.eu